Definition of Currency option

Currency option

An option to buy or sell a foreign currency.

Foreign currency option

An option that conveys the right to buy or sell a specified amount of foreign
currency at a specified price within a specified time period.

Virtual currency option

A new option contract introduced by the PHLX in 1994 that is settled in US$ rather
than in the underlying currency. These options are also called 3-Ds (dollar denominated delivery).

Garmen-Kohlhagen option pricing model

A widely used model for pricing foreign currency options.

Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX)

A securities exchange where American and European foreign
currency options on spot exchange rates are traded.

Quantos

currency options with a guaranteed exchange rate that enable buyers who like the asset, German
bonds for example, but not the asset's pricing currency, to arrange to be paid in a different currency for a fee.

Abandonment option

The option of terminating an investment earlier than originally planned.

American option

An option that may be exercised at any time up to and including the expiration date.
Related: European option

American-style option

An option contract that can be exercised at any time between the date of purchase and
the expiration date. Most exchange-traded options are American style.

Arbitrage-free option-pricing models

Yield curve option-pricing models.

Asian currency units (ACUs)

Dollar deposits held in Singapore or other Asian centers.

Asian option

option based on the average price of the asset during the life of the option.

Bargain-purchase-price option

Gives the lessee the option to purchase the asset at a price below fair market
value when the lease expires.

Barrier options

Contracts with trigger points that, when crossed, automatically generate buying or selling of
other options. These are very exotic options.

Basket options

Packages that involve the exchange of more than two currencies against a base currency at
expiration. The basket option buyer purchases the right, but not the obligation, to receive designated
currencies in exchange for a base currency, either at the prevailing spot market rate or at a prearranged rate of
exchange. A basket option is generally used by multinational corporations with multicurrency cash flows
since it is generally cheaper to buy an option on a basket of currencies than to buy individual options on each
of the currencies that make up the basket.

Binomial option pricing model

An option pricing model in which the underlying asset can take on only two
possible, discrete values in the next time period for each value that it can take on in the preceding time period.

Black-Scholes option-pricing model

A model for pricing call options based on arbitrage arguments that uses
the stock price, the exercise price, the risk-free interest rate, the time to expiration, and the standard deviation
of the stock return.

Blocked currency

A currency that is not freely convertible to other currencies due to exchange controls.

Call an option

To exercise a call option.

Call option

An option contract that gives its holder the right (but not the obligation) to purchase a specified
number of shares of the underlying stock at the given strike price, on or before the expiration date of the
contract.
Call premium
Premium in price above the par value of a bond or share of preferred stock that must be paid to
holders to redeem the bond or share of preferred stock before its scheduled maturity date.

Compound option

option on an option.

Covered or hedge option strategies

Strategies that involve a position in an option as well as a position in the
underlying stock, designed so that one position will help offset any unfavorable price movement in the other,
including covered call writing and protective put buying. Related: naked strategies

Currency

Money.

Currency arbitrage

Taking advantage of divergences in exchange rates in different money markets by
buying a currency in one market and selling it in another market.

Currency basket

The value of a portfolio of specific amounts of individual currencies, used as the basis for
setting the market value of another currency. It is also referred to as a currency cocktail.

Currency future

A financial future contract for the delivery of a specified foreign currency.

Currency risk

Related: Exchange rate risk

Currency risk sharing

An agreement by the parties to a transaction to share the currency risk associated with
the transaction. The arrangement involves a customized hedge contract embedded in the underlying
transaction.

Currency selection

Asset allocation in which the investor chooses among investments denominated in
different currencies.

Currency swap

An agreement to swap a series of specified payment obligations denominated in one currency
for a series of specified payment obligations denominated in a different currency.

Dealer options

Over-the-counter options, such as those offered by government and mortgage-backed
securities dealers.

Delivery options

The options available to the seller of an interest rate futures contract, including the quality
option, the timing option, and the wild card option. Delivery options make the buyer uncertain of which
Treasury Bond will be delivered or when it will be delivered.

Devaluation A decrease in the spot price of the currency

Doubling option

A sinking fund provision that may allow repurchase of twice the required number of bonds
at the sinking fund call price.

Down-and-in option

Barrier option that comes into existence if asset price hits a barrier.

Down-and-out option

Barrier option that expires if asset price hits a barrier.

Dual-currency issues

Eurobonds that pay coupon interest in one currency but pay the principal in a different
currency.

Elasticity of an option

Percentage change in the value of an option given a 1% change in the value of the
option's underlying stock.

Embedded option

An option that is part of the structure of a bond that provides either the bondholder or
issuer the right to take some action against the other party, as opposed to a bare option, which trades
separately from any underlying security.

Equity options

Securities that give the holder the right to buy or sell a specified number of shares of stock, at
a specified price for a certain (limited) time period. Typically one option equals 100 shares of stock.

Eurocurrency deposit

A short-term fixed rate time deposit denominated in a currency other than the local
currency (i.e. US$ deposited in a London bank).

Eurocurrency market

The money market for borrowing and lending currencies that are held in the form of
deposits in banks located outside the countries of the currencies issued as legal tender.

European Currency Unit (ECU)

An index of foreign exchange consisting of about 10 European currencies,
originally devised in 1979.

European option

option that may be exercised only at the expiration date. Related: american option.

European-style option

An option contract that can only be exercised on the expiration date.

Exercising the option

The act buying or selling the underlying asset via the option contract.

Foreign currency

Foreign money.

Foreign currency translation

The process of restating foreign currency accounts of subsidiaries into the
reporting currency of the parent company in order to prepare consolidated financial statements.

Futures option

An option on a futures contract. Related: options on physicals.

Greenshoe option

option that allows the underwriter for a new issue to buy and resell additional shares.

Hard currency

A freely convertible currency that is not expected to depreciate in value in the foreseeable future.

Index and Option Market (IOM)

A division of the CME established in 1982 for trading stock index
products and options. Related: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

Index option

A call or put option based on a stock market index.

Intrinsic value of an option

The amount by which an option is in-the-money. An option which is not in-themoney
has no intrinsic value. Related: in-the-money.

Irrational call option

The implied call imbedded in the MBS. Identified as irrational because the call is
sometimes not exercised when it is in the money (interest rates are below the threshold to refinance).
Sometimes exercised when not in the money (home sold without regard to the relative level of interest rates).

Liquid yield option note (LYON)

Zero-coupon, callable, putable, convertible bond invented by Merrill

Lookback option

An option that allows the buyer to choose as the option strike price any price of the
underlying asset that has occurred during the life of the option. If a call, the buyer will choose the minimal
price, whereas if a put, the buyer will choose the maximum price. This option will always be in the money.

Liquid yield option note (LYON)

Zero-coupon, callable, putable, convertible bond invented by Merrill Lynch & Co.

Margin requirement (Options)

The amount of cash an uncovered (naked) option writer is required to
deposit and maintain to cover his daily position valuation and reasonably foreseeable intra-day price changes.

Multicurrency clause

Such a clause on a Euro loan permits the borrower to switch from one currency to
another currency on a rollover date.

Multicurrency loans

Give the borrower the possibility of drawing a loan in different currencies.

Multi-option financing facility

A syndicated confirmed credit line with attached options.

Naked option strategies

An unhedged strategy making exclusive use of one of the following: Long call
strategy (buying call options ), short call strategy (selling or writing call options), Long put strategy (buying
put options ), and short put strategy (selling or writing put options). By themselves, these positions are called
naked strategies because they do not involve an offsetting or risk-reducing position in another option or the
underlying security.
Related: covered option strategies.

Option

Gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an asset at a set price on or before a
given date. Investors, not companies, issue options. Investors who purchase call options bet the stock will be
worth more than the price set by the option (the strike price), plus the price they paid for the option itself.
Buyers of put options bet the stock's price will go down below the price set by the option. An option is part of
a class of securities called derivatives, so named because these securities derive their value from the worth of
an underlying investment.

Option elasticity

The percentage increase in an option's value given a 1% change in the value of the
underlying security.

Option not to deliver

In the mortgage pipeline, an additional hedge placed in tandem with the forward or
substitute sale.

Option premium

The option price.

Option price

Also called the option premium, the price paid by the buyer of the options contract for the right
to buy or sell a security at a specified price in the future.

Option seller

Also called the option writer , the party who grants a right to trade a security at a given price in
the future.

Option writer

option seller.

Option-adjusted spread (OAS)

1) The spread over an issuer's spot rate curve, developed as a measure of
the yield spread that can be used to convert dollar differences between theoretical value and market price.
2) The cost of the implied call embedded in a MBS, defined as additional basis-yield spread. When added to the
base yield spread of an MBS without an operative call produces the option-adjusted spread.

Options contract

A contract that, in exchange for the option price, gives the option buyer the right, but not
the obligation, to buy (or sell) a financial asset at the exercise price from (or to) the option seller within a
specified time period, or on a specified date (expiration date).

Options contract multiple

A constant, set at $100, which when multiplied by the cash index value gives the
dollar value of the stock index underlying an option. That is, dollar value of the underlying stock index = cash
index value x $100 (the options contract multiple).

Options on physicals

Interest rate options written on fixed-income securities, as opposed to those written on
interest rate futures contracts.

Out-of-the-money option

A call option is out-of-the-money if the strike price is greater than the market price
of the underlying security. A put option is out-of-the-money if the strike price is less than the market price of
the underlying security.

Path dependent option

An option whose value depends on the sequence of prices of the underlying asset
rather than just the final price of the asset.

Postponement option

The option of postponing a project without eliminating the possibility of undertaking it.

Put an option

To exercise a put option.

Put option

This security gives investors the right to sell (or put) fixed number of shares at a fixed price within
a given time frame. An investor, for example, might wish to have the right to sell shares of a stock at a certain
price by a certain time in order to protect, or hedge, an existing investment.

Quality option

Also called the swap option, the seller's choice of deliverables in Treasury Bond and Treasury
note futures contract. Related: cheapest to deliver issue

Reporting currency

The currency in which the parent firm prepares its own financial statements; that is, U.S.
dollars for a U.S. company.

Reserve currency

A foreign currency held by a central bank or monetary authority for the purposes of
exchange intervention and the settlement of inter-governmental claims.

Soft currency

A currency that is expected to drop in value relative to other currencies.

Split-fee option

An option on an option. The buyer generally executes the split fee with first an initial fee,
with a window period at the end of which upon payment of a second fee the original terms of the option may
be extended to a later predetermined final notification date.

Stock index option

An option in which the underlying is a common stock index.

Stock option

An option in which the underlying is the common stock of a corporation.

Tax deferral option

The feature of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code that the capital gains tax on an asset is
payable only when the gain is realized by selling the asset.

Tax-timing option

The option to sell an asset and claim a loss for tax purposes or not to sell the asset and
defer the capital gains tax.

Time value of an option

The portion of an option's premium that is based on the amount of time remaining
until the expiration date of the option contract, and that the underlying components that determine the value of
the option may change during that time. Time value is generally equal to the difference between the premium
and the intrinsic value. Related: in-the-money.

Timing option

For a Treasury Bond or note futures contract, the seller's choice of when in the delivery month to deliver.

Two-state option pricing model

An option pricing model in which the underlying asset can take on only two
possible (discrete) values in the next time period for each value it can take on in the preceding time period.
Also called the binomial option pricing model.

Wild card option

The right of the seller of a Treasury Bond futures contract to give notice of intent to deliver
at or before 8:00 p.m. Chicago time after the closing of the exchange (3:15 p.m. Chicago time) when the
futures settlement price has been fixed. Related: Timing option.

Yield curve option-pricing models

Models that can incorporate different volatility assumptions along the
yield curve, such as the Black-Derman-Toy model. Also called arbitrage-free option-pricing models.

Call Option

A contract that gives the holder the right to buy an asset for a
specified price on or before a given expiration (maturity) date

Option

See call option and put option

Put Option

A contract that gives the holder the right to sell an asset for a
specified price on or before a given expiration (maturity) date

cafeteria plan a “menu” of fringe benefit options that include

cash or nontaxable benefits

stock option

a right allowing the holder to purchase shares of common stock during some future time frame and at a specified price

American option

An option that can be exercised any time until its
expiration date. Contrast with European option.

European option

An option that can be exercised only on its expiration date.
Contrast with American option.

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